Anime music lovers have sought to determine which shows have the best theme music, and the results certainly provide an anison tour de force – for once with musical merit rather than the show’s sheer popularity helping settle matters.

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The only thing I have to say is why has nobody pointed out that “Karma” the “Tales of the Abyss” intro isn’t even an anime, it’s an intro real to the game and the actual song used in game is an instrumental with a guitar taking the vocals.

Well, there are several good songs in this list, though the order is all wrong. I’m also stumped as to why they put Hare Hare Yukai up there rather than Bouken Desho Desho, and Connect rather than Magia. More importantly, the list is missing several other fantastic songs. In no particular order, from series I know:

– Shiawase no Iro (Ah! My Goddess)
– Period, Rain, and Uso (all 3 from FMA:Brotherhood)
– Higurashi (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni) The lack of this one on this list is an atrocity!
– Re-Sublimity (Kannazuki no Miko)
– Toki wo Kizamu Uta (Clannad After Story) This one also really should be on the list.
– YOU (SHUFFLE!)
– Disillusion ( Fate/stay night)
– Oblivious (Kara no Kyoukai) Really, I can hardly believe they didn’t include this one!
– Musou Uta(Musouka) (Utawarerumono) This one should be on here as well.

I really dont get why people like “Only my railgun” so much. Theres so many songs much better, even on the Aru Majutsu series, like “Masterpiece” or “No Buts”.
Also I hope this list isnt meant to be “Top 25 anime theme songs of all time”, because most of those are from really recent anime and I dont think they even deserve to be on top 25 list.

Clannad is older, if good= affecting just a few bars of it can affect me. Good to mix with it is Hannamaru Kindergarden, to cheer you back up. A Little Fairy called Sugar has lots of good music within.

It’s a reasonable list. The abundance of more recent titles is typical, if a bit saddening, but oh well.

Too bad “Pure Snow” by Sasaki Yuko (OP for Himiko0den anime) isn’t on here. It’s still one of my top songs for OPs/EDs. Too bad the anime itself pretty much sucked (seems they invested most o fthe funding fo rthat series into the OP production…)

Also, “I’ll Be There (Ballad Version)” by Hayashibara Megumi for the Saber Marionette J Again OAV. (The original version never felt right to me…)

Those would’ve been tow of my votes for top anime OPs/EDs, at least for older stuff. (SMJ Again OAV was mid/late 90’s. Himiko-den was around 2001/2002 IIRC. The damn “Pure Snow” single was a bitch to find; Took me about 5 years to find a physical copy. It cost me like 2500 Yen … USED, though in decent condition. The original retail price was about 1300 Yen.)

No Rurouni Kenshin???
Seriously the anime has classic songs from some of the most important bands of japan like l’arc en ciel,Siam Shade,The Yellow Monkey,T.M.Revolution,Judy and Mary.This is really a shame!!
Evangelion op and Clannad After Story should be in the list too

Oh I know that, in case that wasn’t clear. I wouldn’t have used the word “density” if it was only one title (probably).

All the themes she composed for Maaya are gorgeous, and the lack of Kiseki no Umi, Yakusoku wa Iranai, Hemisphere, Tune the Rainbow etc. is disappointing. But Platinum is as worthy a representative as any of them I guess.

I would have at least expected Sousei no Aquarion to appear somewhere though, since it’s been a NicoNico favorite back in the day, but oh well.

Listen!! and No Thank You were just as good as Don’t Say Lazy. And this list is pretty much moe songs anyway, there ar emuch better anime themes out there.
No, seriously, no CAS? No Paradise Lost? Nothing from all the awsome Higurashi openings? Seriously?

Where are the awesome songs of NHK ni Youkoso, such as Odoru Akachan Ningen and Odoru Dame Ningen 2006? Or Seto no Hanayome’s Shi no Uta and Hageshii Uta for that matter? And don’t get me startet with the absence of Detroit Metal City. >_>

to hell with that. Right now, I’m just hoping the rumors that it’s not getting a second season due to poor reception are true. Last thing the anime industry needs is more Kugimiya type-casting (just let the Shana clones die already).

Also, what cliffhanger? All I remember is Riko’s plotline being pretty much resolved, then some dumb scene where Aria smacks Kenji because SHE couldn’t hide her breast pads properly (J.C. Staff and their usual “Hur hur! Everyone loves filler with Kugimiya acting abusive!”)… and I guess that pointlessly confusing OVA. But yeah, forget a continuation. If anyone’s really badly interested, they could just read the damn novels.

Wow… you know, I understand the lack of Bebop/FLCL/any show that was big in American but not in Japan, but shame on you Japanese otaku for putting “Naisho no Hanashi” at #23 and completely dismissing the infinitely superior “Kimi no Shiranai Monogatari” from the list altogether. SHAME.

Only OPs and EDs? I still thing that “God Knows” is one of the most godly anime songs ever. I love most of the songs here! It’d kind of funny how the only ones I disagree with are the ones that are thriving off the popularity of being broadcast this season. I had no idea the Nisemonogatari ED was so popular…

The only thing is that the song for SAO is actually fairly good. The anime on the other hand, well… it is what it is.

With that being said, there’s a lot of stuff on the list purely because it’s recent. (No surprise.) This should be a testament to some of the older titles that do survive the test of time, like you have mentioned.

My personal picks from this list would have to be Angel Beats and AnoHana.

Firstly, judging just music is faulty. It’s extremely subjective, and in a lot of cases a good opening involves a good video to go with it. As for what makes a good video, it depends. I liked Kannagi’s opening because it had nothing to do with the show and looked more like a spinoff.

Also, a lot of times the song is made good by how they use it. An excellent example here would be Ano Hana, where the ending song was used to power up the emotional scenes throughout the series. Or My Soul, Your Beats, which was used in a very similar manner.

I like the KANNAGI opening but I’d disagree that it had nothing to do with the show. It’s symbolic of the personalities of the art club, showing what they’d be like in a different context, and it’s a good indicator as to what the series overall would be like for people who found the shift in focus away from it being primarily a magical girlfriend comedy after the first few episodes a little jarring.

I have to say, this list was just about the best list I’ve seen on Sankaku Complex, I agree with about 90% of it being awesome songs. In my personal opinion, the only things I would have changed myself were…
1. K-ON S1 OP rather than ED. (The first season’s OP was imo the best song of the series.)
2. Haruhi S1 OP rather than ED (Even though Hare Hare Yukai is iconic as fuck, I still think the S1 Haruhi OP is one of the greatest anime themes of all time.)
3. Cardcaptor Sakura OP 1.
(It was rather coincidental that I preferred all the first OPs over any of the others, for that matter, I prefer OP 2 over OP 1 for Accel World, lol (even though I don’t like ALTIMA, I think the OP 1 to Accel World is probably the only KOTOKO song I’ve heard so far that I really don’t like.)
Anyways, other than that, this was a kickass list, I can understand why a lot of this was chosen, the tracks that embody the series perfectly, lol.

I certainly agree about the first HARUHI opening song (well, first opening song excluding episode 0) being better than the iconic ending. I think there’s a reason they used “Bouken Deshou Deshou” and not “Hare Hare Yukai” in the DISAPPEARANCE OF HARUHI SUZUMIYA movie.

You’re saying this to someone who not only watches “moe” anime, I will admit, there definitely ARE “moetards”, but just because someone is a fan of “moe anime” and “moe characters” does not mean they are a “moetard”. That is like saying someone who likes a specific genre of music has no taste in music when meanwhile he’s also a fan of classical composition. I will admit, “moe” has become a pretty big thing in the industry, but a lot of the hate for it is misconstrued a lot of the time. Like people who think Robotics;Notes is a shit anime because of the art-style being too “moe” or the “moe references” (for a very rough, recent example). Unfortunately, this kind of mentality is everywhere, it is like these people want every anime to be the next Evangelion, which is all well and good, because that was a great and revolutionary anime for it’s time (for another really basic and obvious example.) I can agree that anime like Sword Art Online this season are rather bogged down by the service aspect, it could have been more serious, there were only a few anime that I had a legitimate gripe about the amount of service though. It isn’t always an obsession, however the fanbase does give “moe” a bad name, it was once a cute, nice thing, and people DO obsess over it. However, I hope that the anime industry reaches a healthy balance between the fanbase, where “moe” anime is available, anime similar to what’s out now, which has “moe” elements as well as the usual, serious tones; as well as anime that are gripping, dark, psychological, dramatic, or just story driven without any real service for those who prefer that kind of thing. If they could find that kind of balance within each season, I don’t think anyone would argue about an anime where colorful girls talk about which side of the chocolate coronet is the top or the bottom.

In all honestly. I don’t really like K-ON!, nor do I believe it’s music should be on this list. However, I do think the anime elitists should really just go away, they won’t though, because there will always be that type in every form of media. The kind who for some strange reason insist on bashing people for their different interests in the media instead of actually learning to enjoy it themselves. Anime is meant to be enjoyed, and it is a shame that people insist on turning it into a competition of “Who’s the biggest fan” or “Who’s the most hardcore”. Fun is what it is, and people like that sap it. Enough said.

Fair enough, problem is when it affects the entire anime, and its overexpose to ANYONE not just moe fans.

Biggest grip is that moe and faservice have infested the lot of anime, you see those elements in most series in order to win you obsessive fan over and get you to buy it.

In the past there was balance, shoujo was shoujo, shounen shounen, psychological psychological, drama drama, etc, what I meant there was a clear distinction, if you did not like it you skipped those and you would not fin its various elemts in all anime, today anime ALL is infested with moe and fanservice, while some of you insist moe its not a genre its has evolved into becoming a genre.

Another grip is that you are obsessed with it, this very site shows you that, heck, check today YUI BIRTHDAY topic. That o0bession has lead first to invading all anime regardless of genres, second it has lead to companies to basically do 100% moe series OR as said included its elements all the time, so there hardly series made for those that dont like it, and while you insist on “buy it” “we buy” “buy whenever you have a chance” your obsession is so big and the overexposure is so big that your are guaranteed targets, that leaves the rest of us with not much options to choose, let alone find something we like to buy, because honestly the rest of os non moe fans dont buy just for the hell of it or because of a cute character, so its harder to appeal to us, granted, iof we had option we would buy but since companies dedicate all their time on you….

You are obsesses, many times its said you are blind, and its true, you like moe, you dont see it, but you have affected how the entire industry works and broke a healthy balance, that why you guys are so very criticized, and nits not only fans but even the industry in the voice of directors, producers that have pointed out your obsession, which you seem to believe its harmless, again, all would be fin if your tastes had not infested all anime and affected other fans too and being exposed against their will to your taste.

Also, I can’t say I’d even heard of YAT. I was thinking about it for a few minutes figuring it was some really obvious and super-popular 90s anime I was just having a mental block over, still couldn’t think of anything, so I Googled it and found… uhh… YAT Anshin! Uchū Ryokō.

Nope, never heard of it, and I was in an anime club in the 1990s. Not saying it doesn’t have a fanbase, but the VHS fansubs of it obviously didn’t make it to our club.

For Yoko Kanno-composed songs, I prefer the ESCAFLOWNE theme to the EVANGELION theme, but if I were to name just one Gainax theme, it’d be “Yume no Naka e” from KARE KANO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iojo0M_giaQ I should’ve included that for an even 10. (Yeah, I know it’s not a Kanno-composed song.)

Thank god, I’m not the only one who feels some of the more older anime songs were more easily singled out as being amazing.

Escaflowne had one of the most majestic tunes and vocals that really set the mood for the series, but then again that whole series has an amazing soundtrack.(although I’m very biased here since Escaflowne is my all time favourite anime, as I view it a pinnacle of animation in general)

Cowboy Beepbop full of jazzy catchy tunes. Who here has not hummed that tune?

Even Evangelion, an anime I don’t really like or dislike, I can admit has a great intro.

In this day and age I’m rather tired of the J-Pop vocals most anime seem obligated to have, that really don’t set any mood and mostly skippable.

I’m seconding Anon 13:43. Also, everyone seems to be forgetting that these anime (while I won’t deny that they’re good) are mainly popular in America, and that’s mostly because they’ve been re-run to death on Adult Swim (FLCL less so, but I recall it airing more than twice).

Tank!’s lack of lyrics means it’s an instrumental. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a “song.”

And it isn’t even a “proper” instrumental since there’s a bit of spoken word at the start. It’s kind of like To Live Is To Die in that regard, except that the words in Tank! have yet to appear on their author’s memorial plaque (I’m loathe to use “tombstone” or “grave marker” here since Cliff was cremated and his ashes spread across his family’s farm in California, and said plaque is in Sweden)

Well, its awesome, but hits is supposedly “TOP” there are better and memorable songs to boot, problem here is the short memory of certain fans that vote for this lists.

To vote any “TOP” you cannot conveniently pick the series you know or are form of from the last 10 or so years only, but look at the history of anime to then make a valid “TOP” since the 60s and till now.

If it was “top” in the last 10 or 15 years, then no problem.

If you were to make a “top” sports cars, would you only pick those form the last 5 years?

Mainstream rock music, a top 10 top 20, top 50, would you pick only those form the last 5 or 10 years? Leaving Nirvana, Motley Crue, Scoprions, etc, etc, tect out?

Only My Railgun, ugh… are there really so many people who think that song is good? I don’t see anything special in it, and save for the part from 0:26 to 0:39 the melody and rhythm sound really clumsy to me… I’d say it’s definitely one of the worse anime songs I’ve heard.

Actually, none of the top 6 sound very interesting to me, except maybe Don’t say Lazy. I guess that’s my personal taste, but i find it interesting that they’re all lumped together at the top.

Connect gets 8th place, but Madoka’s ED isn’t even in the list? wth

Songs that I think are missing:
– Toki wo Kizamu Uta (Clannad After Story OP) – deserves a top spot imo.
– The Light Before We Land (Gunslinger Girl OP) – as mentioned by EndlessGr8
– Duvet (Serial Experiments Lain OP)
– Hyadain no Joujou Yuujou (Nichijou’s 2nd OP) – they’re both great, but I like this one better
– any of Higurashi’s OPs, as mentioned by Aardbark